STRIVE VCAP Entrepreneurship Program 2025

FACILITATOR NAMES: 

Brian J. Bennett, MBA - bbennett38@hccfl.edu

Melissa Brooks, DBA- mbrooks52@hccfl.edu

LOCATION:

All the in-person residency training sessions will be held at the Hillsborough Community College Dale Mabry Campus. The address is 4001 W. Tampa Bay Blvd. Tampa Florida, 33614. Our campus is located across the street from Raymond James Football Stadium. The meeting space is our innovation center called the Pradip C. Patel InLab@HCC. This room is in the Social Sciences Building (DSSC on the campus map), Room 204, Second Floor. (see campus map - https://www.hccfl.edu/media/1067830/dm_buildings_12-2-14.pdfLinks to an external site.)

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION:  The STRIVE program is a program offered through a partnership between the D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) at Syracuse University and Hillsborough Community College (HCC). STRIVE is a 3-phase program that provides participants who have a nascent (budding) early-stage business, or idea for a business with an opportunity to act. By stress testing the business with rigorous business modeling, design thinking, effectuation, and cohort-based curriculum, participants will develop their entrepreneurial competency and interact with an array of subject matter experts who help support aspiring entrepreneurs. This program will help to identify, overcome, and mitigate trouble spots within the business model, leading to increased potential for success. 

COURSE DESCRIPTION:  This course is designed to provide a broad overview of the process of turning an idea into a successful enterprise. This course will be useful for anyone, whether they have had prior business or entrepreneurial experience. The course explores the characteristics of the entrepreneurial mind and the environment in which these ventures succeed. The course provides self-assessment of the skills and commitment necessary to successfully start and operate an entrepreneurial venture. 

COURSE OBJECTIVES: This course is designed to increase entrepreneurial competencies, while at the same time working through the business modeling, and lean startup framework. Whether participants are entering this program with an idea for a business, or they are already in business, but at a nascent (budding) stage of the business enterprising journey, participants should expect to achieve the following objectives as part of STRIVE:  

1. Assess and develop your personal entrepreneurial capacity.  
2. Differentiate between entrepreneurial and managerial thinking.  
3. Play with idea-generation techniques to help you better create and shape ideas into bold opportunities.  
4. Evaluate opportunities using rigorous feasibility and experimentation processes.  
5. Develop, define, and communicate a business concept to determine its feasibility.  
6. Gain confidence to use entrepreneurial thinking and action with future opportunities.  
7. Identify myths associated with entrepreneurship. 
8. Develop an internal operational structure for your business. 
9. Expand your network.
10. Develop a cogent business pitch presentation.